I asked Ross what the word of the day should be. "Amnesia." I check, and there's a strip club by that name, so all the photos...well, you get the idea. "Mnemonic," is Ross's back up plan. Now I get lots of pictures of a band by that name, and also, weirdly, Keanu Reeves in (I assume) The Matrix. Ross's third pick is the charm: PARABOLA

Time for

This is where we ask you how many entries you think NPR will get for the
challenge above. If you want to win, leave a comment with your guess
for the range of entries NPR will receive. First come first served, so
read existing comments before you guess. Or skip the comments and send
an email with your pick to Magdalen (at) Crosswordman (dot) com. Ross
and I guess last, just before we publish the Thursday post. After the
Thursday post is up, the entries are closed.

The winner gets a choice: they can receive a puzzle
book of our choosing or they can ask that a charitable contribution is
made in the winner's honor. As of this week, we are providing an
alternative to the Red Cross. If the winner wishes, we will make a contribution to his/her NPR station. Send us the call letters and we'll do the rest.

Ross won with "1300" as the magic number. This week may be just as easy. What do YOU think?

Our tie-break rule: In the event
that a single round number is announced with a qualifier such as
"about" or "around" (e.g., "We received around 1,200 entries."), the
prize will be
awarded to the
entrant who picked the range including that precise
number, e.g., 551 - 600 wins if the announced range is "around 600." We
retain the discretion to award the prize to an entrant who picked the
adjacent range (e.g., 601-650) if that entrant had not
already won
a prize. In the event that
both entrants had won a
prize already or neither had,
then to the earlier of the
two entries on the
famous judicial principle of
"First Come First Serve,"
(or in technical legal jargon,
"You Snooze, You Lose").
As of January, 2014, this rule is officially even more complicated than
it's ever been, but at least it's consistent with what we actually do..

I solved it on my ten miler this morning, within the first two miles. That being said I am going with 1451 -1500. And my first marathon is just two weeks away! Unfortunately it starts before the puzzle airs so I will have to be concentrating on other thoughts!

Joe K., I too hope you have a marvelous marathon experience in the Empire State Marathon Experience (ESME… “For Esme – with Love and Squalor” by J.D. Salinger.) In my first and only marathon (Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth. Minnesota, 1986), I had hoped to average 7-minute miles and finish in about three hours or so. I finished in 3:40. I could not move my body the following day! Hope you’re in better shape, Joe.

I agree with Mendo Jim. This puzzle is way to easy. Perhaps Dr. Shortz wants to highlight the great number of listeners and puzzle participants he has built up over on NPR. If so, can’t begrudge him that.

Over at Puzzleria! this week, my first puzzle I posted has a “family theme.” It is easy, but tougher, IMO, than Will’s puzzle this week. The second puzzle is about jogging (Joe K.!) and the military. And the third is a pretty tough puzzle about college football…